1. Field of the Invention
An object of the present invention is a method for the thermal conditioning of equipment mounted in aircraft. It further relates to systems for the implementation of this method.
Pods containing electronic equipment are fixed beneath an under-structure of certain aircraft, notably military aircraft. The term "electronic equipment" herein indicates any device, system, apparatus etc. containing at least one electronic component.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Until now, a certain number of known devices have been used to cool the excessively hot ram air at the interface between an aircraft and its environment. One of these devices is constituted by a thermal machine consisting of a compressor in series with an exchanger and a pressure-reducing turbine. This arrangement is commonly known as a "bootstrap assembly". In such an arrangement, the pressure-reducing turbine is supplied with air. The pressure of this air is raised by the action of a compressor and, through the action of a heat exchanger, the temperature of this air is substantially equal to that of the air tapped at the air inlet. The pressure reduction that takes place through the turbine is accompanied by a substantial cooling of the air. If the cooing system of the exchanger uses tapped ram air, it is clear that the bootstrap system is a cooling circuit working on ram air only. This system has the drawback of being bulky and of having a relatively substantial mass: this is obviously not advantageous for aircraft. Furthermore, it is rather complicated to make. This complexity, in combination with the fact that it is particularly difficult to make the final precision settings required by the system, means that the cost price of the unit is relatively high.
It is an object of the present invention to propose a method that can be used to overcome the above-mentioned drawbacks, through a possibility of implementation using new systems that have a relatively reduced ratio of space factor to mass.
It is another object of the invention to make systems that enable efficient thermal conditioning of electronic equipment while, at the same time, being less complex, thus entailing an appreciably lower cost price.